The votes by the Lehigh County sub-area council were the first of those to be taken this month by three standing committees of the Health Systems Council of Eastern Pennsylvania (HSC).

HSC's project review committee will consider the proposals 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Lehigh County Courthouse, and its board of directors will review them 7:30 p.m. March 25 at Mack Trucks auditorium.

The final decision must be rendered by the state health secretary.

Sacred Heart Vice President Ken Turner said he was quite pleased with the vote, which overturned a recommendation against the project by HSC staff. He said the committee "recognized the validity of our arguments and the hospital's need for services."

It was the second time in less than two years that Sacred Heart applied for the new service. Their first application was rejected by the HSC board, the state health department and an independent review board and is currently awaiting a ruling from Commonwealth Court.

Sacred Heart officials submitted a new bid because of the physical, emotional, spiritual and financial hardships encountered by the hospital and its patients who wait an average of 2 to 5 days to be scheduled for the diagnostic test at another hospital.

Several staff physicians, including the chairmen of family practice and internal medicine at Sacred Heart, spoke last night on behalf of the patient's need to be served promptly and at a lower cost.

Committee members appeared to support that contention, with one doctor on the panel calling catheterization a basic service expected at all full-service hospitals.

James Brush, deputy director of HSC, argued that the project was not in the best interest of the patient because the service and costs would be unnecessarily duplicated.

Brush said the regional health plan requires that all existing units perform 540 catheterizations in the previous year before a new lab be opened, and Easton Hospital's lab had not yet performed that many.

He added that when the third, already approved catheterization lab opens at Lehigh Valley Hospital Center, the delay would be cut in half. He also recommended that Sacred Heart negotiate an agreement with Sacred Heart, so that Sacred Heart patients would be charged as in-patients rather than out- patients, and be billed at a lower rate.

Sacred Heart, however, stressed that all existing labs were performing the state's minimum requirement of 510 procedures.

In addition, its officials cited competition for patients and the trend of hospitals becoming involved in HMOs and PPOs, which limit the facilities and doctors a subscriber can see for a reduced rate, as a reason Sacred Heart needed to provide the service.

Dr. Antonio Panebianco, a cardiac surgeon at the hospital center, and Dr. Terrill Theman, a cardiac surgeon at St. Luke's Hospital, added their support as new staff members of Sacred Heart, who would perform open heart surgery on those Sacred Heart patients as needed (about half of all those who have catheterizations).

Lehigh Valley Hospital Center's application for a two-story west wing represented its third attempt at expansion in as many years.

Two previous bids, for considerably more money and space, were voluntarily withdrawn before reaching the review process.

Edward Hindin, vice president for planning and marketing, outlined the facility's increasing demand for its highly sophisticated, regional services, which resulted in the need for space.

The 55,000-square-foot addition would house administrative, educational and dietary services, and return to the hospital several departments currently renting space off-campus.

In addition, another 37,000 square feet within the hospital would be renovated to ease the demand on patient units.

HSC's Brush said there was no question additional space was needed by the facility and the proposal appeared to be the best solution.